The study, by technology giant Microsoft, did however find that the ability of humans to multitask has improved.

It read: “Canadians [who were tested] with more digital lifestyles (those who consume more media, are multi-screeners, social media enthusiasts, or earlier adopters of technology) struggle to focus in environments where prolonged attention is needed.

Eight seconds: the average attention span of humans

“While digital lifestyles decrease sustained attention overall, it’s only true in the long-term. Early adopters and heavy social media users front load their attention and have more intermittent bursts of high attention.

“They’re better at identifying what they want/don’t want to engage with and need less to process and commit things to memory.”

The research follows a study by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information and the National Library of Medicine in the US that found 79 per cent of respondents regularly “dual screen” by using portable devices while watching TV.

Bruce Morton, a researcher with the University of Western Ontario’s Brain and Mind Institute, suggested it is the result of humans craving information.

“When we first invented the car, it was so novel,” he said.

“The thought of having an entertainment device in the car was ridiculous because the car itself was the entertainment.

“After a while, travelling for eight hours at a time, you’d had enough of it. The brain is bored. You put radios in the car and video displays.

“Why? Because after the first 10 minutes of the drive I’ve had enough already. I understand this.

“Just because we may be allocating our attention differently as a function of the technologies we may be using, it doesn’t mean that the way our attention actually can function has changed.”